


long shadow; tall shoes

by jonphaedrus



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Gen, Summer Nagamas 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 19:45:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2037675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonphaedrus/pseuds/jonphaedrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In his entire life, Stahl cannot remember this ever happening, but considering Sully never lets him forget it, the facts are: it happened. He’s never really sure if he regrets it or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	long shadow; tall shoes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pro-memer](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=pro-memer).



When Stahl is five years old, a little girl with a lot of red hair grabs him in the practice yard, drags him off his pony, and beats him about the head until he’s bleeding from his lower lip and Frederick, the squire, grabs her by the back of the shirt and lifts her free.

“What did you do that for?” Frederick’s voice cracks when he shouts, and she flails wildly in his grasp, trying to get at Stahl again, who just covers his head.

“He pushed me in the mud two years ago and said girls couldn’t ride horses!”

In his entire life, Stahl cannot remember this _ever_ happening, but considering Sully never lets him forget it, the facts are: it happened. He’s never really sure if he regrets it or not.

 

 

 

When Stahl is seven years old, Sully punches him so hard in the teeth that it knocks out his two loose front ones and he almost swallows them. In hindsight, he realises that he _probably_ deserved it, but at the time the only thing that he can think about his how ashamed he is for having to go home and explain to his parents how he lost them. As a child, all that he can note is that girls aren’t supposed to be able to punch that hard, they’re supposed to wear dresses, embroider or whatever, ride their horses sidesaddle. They aren’t supposed to pick up wooden sword in the practice yard and thrash him with them.

But, just like every day the next day comes, and Sully picks up the wooden sword in the practice yard and thrashes him with it. Just like every other day, Stahl can’t bear to look her in the eyes, and he gets thrown on his ass.

 

 

When he is thirteen, he grows like a weed but her powerful, stocky biceps still pick him up and toss him on the ground like he weighs nothing. When he is sixteen, Sully punches him for looking strange at her when she’s changing her armour, and he’s less confused about her punching him and more confused as to why she thought he cared about if she had breasts. When he’s nineteen, she unhorses him at a tournament and he nearly breaks his tailbone, but she brings him ice for his butt every day for a week, which somehow makes up for it.

 

 

It never changes, no matter how many years pass. Sully knows just when and where to hit him in the knee; when to smack him in the face hard enough that his skull rings. She laughs more, she drinks more (she never eats more), she wins more fights, more arm-wrestling matches. Stahl always feels like he’s playing second fiddle to her; but the older he gets, the less bad that truly seems.

Sully cares about him. A lot. He wished he had known when he was younger, but it had never occurred to him to see that her shoving him in the mud or whacking him about the head with a stick was a sign of affection. He’s the only one that she doesn’t lose her temper over when he wins a sparring match—and the older that they get, the more that happens.

Maybe it’s because all those years of training have finally sunk into Stahl’s head, or because he gets more confident the more Risen he runs through with a sword.

Stahl thinks it’s neither of those things; it is, perhaps, more that he is at last learning by example.

Sully only comes up to his shoulder, but her shadow is long and her shoes are big, and there is more bravery in Sully’s boasting than Stahl thinks he will ever come to possess himself—but it is something to live up to, and that is enough.

He will make it all worth it, in the end.


End file.
